Internet Desk: Indian team led by Virat Kohli will look to leave aside its below-par show against England in the first test at Rajkot, as both teams go head to head in the second cricket test at Vishakapatnam on Thursday.
Under fire Indian spinners put up a dismal performance on the batting strip at Rajkot. The pitch at the ACA-VDCA ground however is expected to be a rank turner, much to the liking of Ashwin and co. The strip at Vizag will test the visiting side’s batting unit big time after skipper Virat Kohli expressed his displeasure about the Rajkot strip where Indian spinners got a total nine wickets with four English batsmen scoring hundreds.
Questions are being raised about Ravichandran Ashwin’s ability to get wickets on a good track after finishing with underwhelming match figures of 3/230.
Both teams are likely to make some changes to the squad that played at Rajkot.
Karnataka opener KL Rahul looks all set to make a comeback into the side. He will replace a struggling Gautam Gambhir who looked totally out of sorts against the seam bowling of England pace bowlers.
It will also be interesting to see whether Kohli wants an extra batsman or an all-rounder in the playing XI.
England on the other hand may get in James Anderson for Chris Woakes, but it remains to be seen whether Trevor Bayliss rushes him after his recovery from shoulder injury.
Whatever the combination or the conditions may be, India will be certainly wary of an England backfire in their own spin-friendly domain after the famed Indian spinners did not dominate in Rajkot where the battle was won by the England troika of Moeen Ali, Zafar Ansari and leg-spinner Adil Rashid who returned with a match-haul of seven wickets.
Anil Kumble, however, defended the Indian spinners who did not get much turn in Rajkot to return with nine wickets.
“Just because they got more wickets than our spinners doesn’t mean we will be at a loss but that’s what I am saying that we batted 160 overs. We will make our strategy based on the pitch we get, we will select the team accordingly. We play to take 20 wickets and win matches. Whatever wicket we get, we will play on that,” Kumble said.
Ravichandran Ashwin will be in focus. Ravindra Jadeja and Amit Mishra will also like to up the ante.
The leg-spinner Mishra in particular will be looking forward to return to the venue where he had shot New Zealand out for 79 in 23.1 overs with his devastating 5/18 in an ODI two weeks back.
The middle-order looked wobbly the moment Cheteshwar Pujara or Ajinkya Rahane have a failure with the bat as they have to bat deep with Virat Kohli at centre to give their spinners enough cushion on the scoreboard.
About the spin battle, England cannot be underestimated and they have made their intention clear by extending the contract of Pakistani great Saqlain Mushtaq who’s travelling as the spin bowling consultant.
Originally he was slated to leave after the first Test but Saqlain is to stay here till Mohali Test. He has made his presence felt in Rajkot with Rashid attributing the fact that the former Pakistani off-spinner had made to bowl at natural pace rather than being quick in the air to get more turn.
It was widely attributed that India will come out all guns blazing against the embattled England especially after their embarrassing first-ever defeat in Bangladesh about two weeks ago. But the result at Rajkot has established Alistair Cook’s side will not be pushovers unlike New Zealand who were whitewashed 3-0 in the last series.